ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: To evaluate psychometric properties of the Chinese version of Dementia Quality of Life Measure - Proxy (C-DEMQoL-Proxy). METHODS: Care home residents aged ≥60 years who were diagnosed with dementia or demonstrated impairment in cognition were recruited from four care facilities in Hong Kong. Caregivers of these participants were also invited to participate. The original DEMQoL-Proxy was translated into Chinese (Cantonese) by a trained translator. The forward-translated version was reviewed by an expert panel of six experienced healthcare professionals. Revisions were made based on comments. The instrument was back-translated to English to check whether further changes were necessary. Demographic data (age, sex, type and severity of dementia, and Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE] score) were collected from medical records of participants with dementia. Caregivers were interviewed by an occupational therapist or personnel supervised by the occupational therapist using the C-DEMQoL-Proxy and the Chinese version of Quality of Life-Alzheimer's Disease-Proxy (C-QoL-AD-Proxy). Acceptability, reliability, and validity of the C-DEMQoL-Proxy were evaluated using standard psychometric methods. RESULTS: 90 individuals (82.2% women) with dementia aged 72 to 102 years were included. Their diagnosis included Alzheimer's disease (23.3%), vascular dementia (15.6%), mixed and other types of dementias (51.1%), and missing (10%). Severity was mild in 12.2%, moderate in 62.2%, and severe in 25.6%. The mean MMSE score was 12.0 ± 4.9. 20% of the caregivers were family members and the rest were professional carers. The C-DEMQoL-Proxy had good acceptability, with no floor or ceiling effects or missing data. It had good internal consistency (Cronbach alpha = 0.91) and test-retest reliability (intraclass correlation coefficients = 0.83). It was mildly correlated with C-QoL-AD-Proxy (r = 0.29, p < 0.01). Age and sex were not correlated with C-DEMQoL-Proxy scores. C-DEMQoL-Proxy scores were not significantly different between dementia types, severity levels, or between those with higher or lower MMSE scores. CONCLUSION: The C-DEMQoL-Proxy is a valid and reliable instrument to assess health-related quality of life in individuals with dementia.
